You think you are saving money...think again !!

First impressions can be deceiving, especially when it comes to saving money. There are many instances when people believe they are saving money when in reality they are actually wasting it. This usually occurs because the person focuses on a specific aspect of what they are doing rather than looking at the situation with a wider view that encompasses all the information. Here are 5 common ways people waste money when they think they are saving :

Buying gas at the least expensive gas station: This only works if the gas station is on your regularly traveled path, not if you have to go out of your way.
Going to different stores to get sale items: In most instances, the cost of driving your car between stores will be more than the savings achieved.
Buying the cheapest: There is a difference between the cheapest and the best value.
Purchasing items on sale: This works if the items was something that you were going to buy anyway. It doesn’t if the items is something you would have never purchased if it wasn’t on sale.
Buying in bulk: This only works if you consume all the of bulk item before it goes bad and you don’t consume it quicker because you have it in bulk.

Transfer of I-485s

From MurthyDotCom

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is in the process of transferring certain pending applications for Adjustment of Status to Permanent Residence (Forms I-485) among the different service centers. The transfer process, announced in mid-March 2007, is all part of the on-going "bi-specialization" streamlining efforts. Under this transfer process, I-485 cases pending with the California Service Center (CSC) will be transferred to the Nebraska Service Center (NSC). Those pending with the Vermont Service Center (VSC) will move to the Texas Service Center (TSC).

Bi-Specialization Entails "Sister Center" Processing

Under bi-specialization, the VSC and CSC are paired as sister centers; the NSC is paired with TSC. Each set of sister centers only processes certain types of cases. This is intended to improve efficiency. A number of articles about bi-specialization can be found on MurthyDotCom. General information on bi-specialization was reported in our March 31, 2006 MurthyBulletin article, USCIS Begins Bi-Specialization April 1, 2006.

Transfer Includes Retrogressed and Security Cases

The notice indicated that this transfer includes cases subject to visa retrogression and security and/or background checks. The transfer should be reflected in the online case status system, and a transfer notice will be issued to the applicant or applicant's representative. Persons receiving these notices should understand that this is a routine matter.

Processing Based on Original Filing Date

The notice also confirmed that the transferred cases will be placed in the queue for adjudication based upon their original filing dates.

Merely an Internal USCIS Matter / New Receipt Notices Issued

This change does not impact any of the current filing instructions. The transfers will occur without any request or action on the part of the applicant. Bi-specialization is purely an internal matter at the USCIS, but we at the Murthy Law Firm believe this is useful information for our readers. We hope to allay concerns if I-485 transfer notices are received, reflecting that cases have been moved to different service centers.

Nickel-and-Diming Your Way To Riches, if That's Your Thing

I came across this article in the Wallstreet journal, that has some interesting ideas to make more out of your money.

Article

I thought I was fairly deft at handling money. But that was before I met the maestros of money management.

We're talking here about the legions of Americans who manipulate their monthly cash flow like chess masters, along the way snagging frequent-flier miles, cash rewards and interest income.

Behind all this lies that unquenchable human desire to beat the system, score a bargain and turn a buck. In my book, those are admirable qualities. But you've got to wonder: Is it worth it?

Reaping rewards. To make it as a money maestro, you need the right combination of bank accounts and credit cards -- and a certain financial fanaticism.

Consider Dan Goldzband, a cost accountant in San Diego. He has his paycheck deposited directly into a high-yield savings account, where the money sits until he transfers it to his checking account to pay bills. His reward: $35 to $85 in interest each month.

"My checking-account balance rarely exceeds $100," Mr. Goldzband says. "If it does for more than a couple of days, I am doing something wrong. Of course, only a compulsive like me could make this work. But the general idea, less rigorously applied, would still work for many people."

Don't have much money in your savings account? No problem. Maestros will borrow from credit cards with 0% introductory rates and then use the money to earn a little interest, often stashing the cash at EmigrantDirect, HSBC Direct or one of the other banks with high-yield online savings accounts.

"One year, I took $62,000 in cash advances on four cards with 0% rates and put it in a money-market account," chortles Scott Bilker, founder of DebtSmart.com, who has 80 credit cards to his name. "I made $1,800 in interest."

When the maestros aren't gaming those 0% offers, they're hunting for the credit cards with the best rewards. Thanks to this strategy, Mr. Bilker says he hasn't paid to take his family to the movies for two years. He's also got $500 in convenience-store gift cards, and he garnered a $1,700 discount by charging $17,000 in kitchen remodeling expenses.

For many cardholders, the prize is frequent-flier miles. Bob Smith, a retiree in rural Michigan, has 30 credit cards. He charges everything, from groceries to utility bills, to whichever card is currently paying the highest reward. He figures he and his wife have collected more than 100,000 frequent-flier miles over the past year.

"We've been to Finland," Mr. Smith says. "We've been to Lake Tahoe. And we've got enough points so we can go to Europe again."

Going easy. Add it all up and the savings can clearly be significant. But there are also risks involved. Bounce a check or miss a credit-card payment, and you could get whacked with hefty fees and a black mark on your credit report.

Sound too risky -- and too much like hard work? Forget shuffling back and forth between your checking account, your savings account and the latest, greatest credit-card offer. Instead, go for the easy money.

Pile your expenses onto a good rewards card and be sure to pay off the balance every month. Let's say you charge $1,000 a month to a credit card that earns frequent-flier miles. That should give you enough points every two years to get a domestic round-trip ticket worth perhaps $400 -- and maybe two or three tickets if the card pays double miles and gives you a sign-up bonus.

Meanwhile, if your checking account is on the plump side, keep enough there to avoid triggering fees and move the rest into a high-yield savings account or a money-market fund. If you shift $5,000 into an account paying 5%, you will pick up $250 in interest over the next 12 months.

Most important, focus first on your portfolio rather than your monthly cash flow. Suppose you revamp your $300,000 mutual-fund portfolio, cutting your annual fund expenses by half a percentage point. That would save you $1,500 a year -- without the ongoing hassles that come with juggling credit cards and bank accounts.

April 2007 Visa Bulletin : No Changes in EB Visa Numbers

For the third month in a row, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) Visa Bulletin has remained unchanged in the Employment-Based (EB) Categories. The Visa Bulletin for April 2007 is identical in the EB categories to the February 2007 and March 2007 Visa Bulletins. Those categories that were "current" continue to be current. Those categories with cutoff dates continue to have the same cutoff dates.

Simple Question..quite a Simple and Real Answer

CNNMoney had this simple question-answer article that explains a 3 step savings plan in lay man terms.

Question:
I'm a 24-year-old woman looking to start a saving plan. I've cleared all my debt and have started an emergency fund, but I'm unsure how to proceed from there. I've read so many books and articles that I'm more confused than when I started. I tried talking to a financial adviser, but she told me to come back when I have $10,000. I'm so worried about doing it all wrong that I'm tempted to just open an IRA at my bank and leave the rest of my money in CDs. Can you point me in the right direction?

Answer:
If you follow a few simple principles you should be able to build some financial security for yourself fairly easily. And you already seem to have a good head start given that you've pared down your debt, started an emergency fund and have already begun to save.

Resist that urge to go down to the bank and dump all your cash in CDs, and instead follow my simple three-step Starting Out plan:

1. Sign Up for Your Retirement Savings Plan at Work

This is the single most important thing you can do to start building long-term financial security. If your company offers a 401(k) or similar tax-deferred savings plan, sign up for it ASAP.
The money you contribute and the investment earnings on that money isn't taxed until you withdraw it. So in addition to improving your financial prospects long-term you also get a nifty little tax break now. Most likely, your employer will also match a portion of what you put in with a 50 percent match of the first 6 percent you put in being the most common arrangement.
Best of all, signing up for an employer's plan makes regular saving so easy. You don't have to write out a check each month; the money goes right from your paycheck into your account before you get your hands on it.
So put as much into the 401(k) as your plan will allow, or as much as you can afford. At the very least, try to contribute enough to get the maximum match from your employer. If your employer's plan has an automatic contribution-increase feature, sign up for that too.
If your employer doesn't offer a 401(k) or similar plan, then contribute as much as you can to an IRA. You can do either a traditional IRA -- in which case your contribution may be tax deductible. Or you can do a Roth IRA. Your contributions to a Roth aren't deductible, but you can pull your money out of a Roth tax-free. For reasons too complicated to get into here, you're probably better off doing a Roth when you're young, although it's not as if you're going to sabotage yourself if you do a deductible IRA.
The most important thing, though, is to put money into some form of tax-advantaged savings vehicle. By the way, most mutual fund companies have an automatic investing option that will move money directly from your checking account into your fund account. Like payroll deduction, this is a great way to make saving easy, convenient and more likely to happen.

2. Invest Smart, but Keep It Simple.

Yes, it is possible to do both. In fact, the fancier people try to get about their investing strategy, the more likely they are to mess things up.
You want to put most of your savings into stock mutual funds, since they have the best shot at high long-term returns. On the other hand, it's always wise to hedge your bets a bit. So you'll also want to keep a small part of your stash in bond funds, which can also add a bit of stability just to keep things from getting too wild.
The easiest way to get a mix of stock and bond funds that works for you is to buy what's known as a target retirement fund. Essentially, these funds are mini portfolios themselves in that they own a mix of stocks and bonds.
You just buy a fund with a date that roughly corresponds to the date you think you'll retire - say, 2050 or so - and you'll get a blend of stocks and bonds that's appropriate for someone your age (probably 80 to 90 percent stocks and 10 to 20 percent bonds). What's really neat about these funds, though, is that they gradually shift more assets into bonds each year so the fund becomes more conservative as you age.
Many 401(k)s offer target funds, and they're widely available outside of 401(k)s through well known fund firms like Vanguard and T. Rowe Price.
If a target fund isn't an option in your 401(k), then you might go with an asset allocation fund, which is similar to a target fund except the stocks-bonds mix remains roughly the same over time. If you choose an asset allocation fund, go with one that describes its strategy as "growth" or even "aggressive growth."
If your 401(k) doesn't offer a target or asset allocation fund, then put 70 to 80 percent of your money in a broadly diversified large-stock fund (a large-company index fund, if possible) and the rest in a broadly diversified bond fund (again, an index fund if possible).

3. Resist the Urge to Tinker.

Once you've got money flowing into your 401(k) or IRA, you may get the urge to "make improvements." Perhaps you'll hear of other types of funds that are doing well. Or a friend may talk about how well his or her investments are delivering smokin' gains.
This is the time when you've got to dare to be dull -- that is, just stick to your nice little mix of stocks and bonds and don't try to do anything fancy.
Believe me, simpler works out better in the long run.
Nonetheless, it is a good idea to "rebalance" your holdings every year or so by selling shares of funds that have done well and putting the proceeds into ones that have lagged to bring your mix of stocks and bonds back to the appropriate proportions. (You don't even have to do this if you're in a target or asset allocation fund; the fund does it for you.)
But unless something drastic has happened -- like your funds have performed horribly compared with their peers over the course of a few years -- that sort of minor maintenance is about all you need to do.
Those three steps should get you started. Is there you more you can do? Sure, although frankly I don't think there's a whole lot more that will dramatically improve your results (other than trying to save even more than what you stash in tax-deferred plans).
I've purposely refrained from giving you lots of links to previous columns of mine and other sources that can provide more detail on various issues I broached above. I did this because you said your head was already spinning from too much information.
But once you've gotten started investing and you've recovered from information overload, I do think it would be a good idea to learn some more about the right way to go about saving and investing, if only to reinforce what I've already said.
So when you feel ready, I recommend you check out our Money 101 library, which has 23 lessons on everything from setting priorities to making a budget to the basics of investing to planning for retirement. They're easy to read and, dare I say it, even border on enjoyable.
So if you take on one lesson a week I can almost guarantee that in less than six months, you'll have an excellent grasp on the fundamentals of personal finance -- and a clear head to boot.

IRS will pay you to turn in tax cheaters

SmartMoney is reporting....

IRS will pay you to turn in tax cheaters

There's a new sheriff in town and his name is John Doe. And he may be in the cubicle next to you.Under a newly amended rule from the Internal Revenue Service, ordinary citizens can help the tax man cometh, or at least collect. The new Whistleblower Office is the IRS's attempt to give incentives for you to rat out the tax cheats you know.That's right. If your employer, co-worker, landlord, neighbor or father-in-law is raking in fistfuls of cash and bypassing Uncle Sam, you can anonymously report the abuse to the IRS and snag a windfall from their dishonesty.As long as the total amount of tax fraud comes out to at least $2 million (including penalties, interest, and whatever else the government ultimately collects based on your report), you can get a 15 to 30 percent cut.

The IRS modeled the new program on the Department of Justice's successful False Claims Act, which has been in place since the Civil War era and attracts tips about fraudulent claims against federal government programs. In 2006 alone, the government recovered more than $1.4 billion through that law.Ratting on your boss or ex-husband might sound sleazy, but whistleblowers have taken on a more venerable image in recent years. That's especially true since the Enron era, when the few employees who spoke up about the company's misconduct were seen as turned from Cassandras to folk heroes after the full extent of wrongdoing came to light. Snitching on tax cheats wasn't always so lucrative. The previous incarnation of the Whistleblower Office was called Form 211, with the less-than-snazzy title of "Application for Reward for Original Information." But the program was criticized for offering inadequate incentive and protection for would-be whistleblowers to come forward with information.
"It was ineffective by almost anyone's description," says Michael Sullivan, an attorney with Finch McCranie, an Atlanta law firm, which runs a whistleblower blog6. "It produced very little recovery for the IRS."
Under the old rules, whistleblowers could seek rewards up to 15 percent of the amount recovered by the IRS. But it was deemed a failure, mostly because the IRS was under no real obligation to compensate people who came to them with information of underpayments. Under the new law, however, a whistleblower can make an appeal in court if the IRS decides not to issue a reward."If people are concerned about the consequences, and if there's no guarantee of what they recover, they're much more hesitant about doing it," says Paul Scott, a San Francisco-based trial attorney, formerly with the Department of Justice. "This gives people more security, to be able to assert that claim in court."Money, obviously, is a big issue, for both the potential whistleblower and the IRS, which estimates that the difference between what Americans owe in federal taxes and what they actually pay every year -- the so-called Tax Gap -- is more than $300 billion.

For the fiscal year 2005, the IRS collected just $93.5 million based on information from whistleblowers, according to Stephen Whitlock, the newly appointed director of the Whistleblower Office. And, of course, only a fraction of that amount was paid out to informants.
Scott says the increased rewards will have a profound effect on motivating people to report large instances of tax fraud. The range of risk will now be greater. Think about it: It's not just the IRS that tax cheats have to worry about. It's their employees, colleagues and acquaintances.This isn't a forum to get even for small-fry spats, though. The $2 million threshold is there precisely so the IRS won't have to deal with personal disputes. "We want to make sure that the message is clear," says Whitlock. "We're talking about high-value noncompliance, not 'I've got a dispute with my landlord.'"Given human nature, however, the IRS may unwittingly be giving more incentive to vengeance-seekers to come forward. So should the IRS take motivation into consideration when analyzing or investigating a claim?
Whitlock says yes, but only up to a point. "The motive of the individual -- the disgruntled ex-wife, or fired former employee -- only takes you so far in saying, 'Is this credible or not?'" he says. "The quality of information is really what matters, and that will vary from case to case."
Scott says the higher monetary threshold will make it easier for insiders at companies, rather than someone with a personal grudge, to report fraud to the IRS. "There are plenty of individuals with that kind of money not paying taxes," he says. "But I think the corporate impact of it will be significant."

Sullivan's Atlanta firm represents whistleblowers' cases and has been contacted by several people who work in financial roles at their companies, asking about the new IRS law. It's typically this kind of person -- an ethically-minded employee in a company's accounting department, say -- who's likely to come forward with information, according to Sullivan.
"There's just a certain number of people who are self-righteous," says Brian LaBovick, whose firm LaBovick LaBovick & Wald represents whistleblowers in both federal and state cases. "They won't let it stand. They'll come out and say, 'I want to report this person and I don't care if I never get paid a penny.'" So how much dirt does a whistleblower wannabe need to get paid by the IRS? Whitlock was only appointed to the director position in February, and is at work outlining the investigation and collection process. "We have a lot of issues to sort out," he says.
For example, calling the IRS and saying "I overheard my wife's rich cousin talk about underpaying his taxes -- you might want to look into that" is probably not enough evidence to prompt an investigation. "You have to come to the government with new and valuable information," says LaBovick. "The more information you have, the better your recovery and the more you can get."

Gift a Share

Imagine a small child exclaiming with pride whilst driving past McDonald's or WalMart, "that one's mine!" Or a teenager's newfound interest in the investing pages of the newspaper. Or an employee's loyalty to a company he or she is part owner of. These are the immeasurable returns of stock given as a gift.

You go for a trip to Disneyworld and your child get excited not just about going to meet Mickey but about the fact that he/she owns a Disney share symbolizing ownership.

A stock certificate or a single share representing ownership of a real corporation is one of the most unique, lasting, and meaningful gifts you can find. It doesn't wear out, requires no regular maintenance, and provides learning opportunities and a pride of ownership that other gifts can't touch.

Previously available only to individuals who could afford to invest thousands of dollars, technology has made stock ownership possible in ever-smaller units … down to a single share.

Stock ownership in US-listed corporations is available to citizens of all nations.

A framed share of stock is also a special kind of gift because it changes with time. Depending on how the company you choose performs, it's possible for the share to increase dramatically in value. Lastly, stock as a gift can be a good way to get someone started thinking about stocks and the stock market, which could help them out in the future.

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Doing the right thing to do

It's easy to say; it's hard to understand.

The right thing for a relativist unreliably varies from context to context.
For an absolutist with an extremist mentality, the right thing may turn out to be just the opposite.

It's complex, yet so simple.
For when one's inhibition is gone;
when one's civility is in ruin;
when one's regards for morality, law and politics vanished; and,
when one's regards of relationships discharged,
the right thing will still be there down in the heart of heart.

It is the faintest voice that keeps one awake at night when the world is deep in its slumber.
It is the voice of conscience in one's subconscience.

That is the right thing.

Best Time to buy... anything !

Air conditioners
Best time: winter

Common sense prevails in the air-conditioner market, according to Diane Ritchey, editor of Home Appliance Magazine. "Think about when they're most in use: May through September. People feel the heat and they start to buy. The stock gets depleted, the demand is higher and so is the price. When cool weather comes around, most people just aren't into air conditioner purchasing, so the demand drops, as does the price," she says.

Big appliances
Best time: September and October

Just like the fall clothing influx, new models of major appliance models such as ranges and washing machines hit showroom floors in September and October, says Home Appliance Magazine's Ritchey. About the same time, last year's models go on sale to make room.
"Critical timing and seeing the patterns of the retail world can make a huge difference in appliance shopping," Ritchey says.
Bicycles and outdoor gear
Best time: January

"If you want the newest stuff, the time to look is in February and March, when the season's models come out. The stores start replacing fall and winter stuff with spring and summer models, and that's true for most all outdoor gear from shoes to bikes, hiking gear, everything," says Dennis Lewon, senior editor for Outside magazine.
Some companies will send out special holiday items that will land in the discount section after the season. "In general, most of the new products come to stores in February," Lewon says. "January is good for looking for the old models in the classic post-holiday shopping period."

Cars
Best time: September

New model years begin appearing at dealerships in the fall, making September an ideal time to snatch up the previous year's model at a discount. By the end of the year, inventory dwindles, so acting earlier assures a determined buyer of the best selection.
If you'd like to pay less than retail when shopping, try these bargaining tips.Another tip for buying a new car: "Monitor the number of days that a truck or car sits on a lot. Anytime a car or truck isn't selling well, you can get a good deal," says Phillip Reed, consumer advice editor for Edmunds.com and a co-author of "Strategies for Smart Car Buyers."
Shop on a weekday to get the undivided attention of the sales staff and go at the end of the month when they're trying to make quotas. Be sure to go early in the morning or early in the afternoon and show up well-rested and with a full belly.
"You don't want to be hungry or tired," says Reed, who also recommends using the Internet department to broker the deal. You'll save money and skip the high-pressure negotiations in the finance and insurance office.
"Often the person who delivers the car to you isn't even a salesman but a porter. You just sign the papers, and it's done," Reed says.

Cell phones
Best time: any time

A new cell phone comes out approximately every five minutes. Obviously, that's hyperbole, but John Morris, the editor of home and entertainment coverage for CNET.com, says the team reviewing cell phones can barely keep up with the steady stream of new models being offered.
"The market for cell phones doesn't follow any seasonal trend or technological advances. Also, their release schedule is dictated by carriers as well as manufacturer, which makes it a little more complicated," Morris says.

Computers
Best time: July and August

If you're shopping for a low price on a computer, buying slightly older technology can save you some money. Following the release schedule of chip makers Advanced Micro Devices and Intel will offer some clues as to when computer manufacturers will offer updates and redesigns, says CNET's Morris. Chip manufacturers turn out upgrades quickly, about every three months, with major computer manufacturers following suit.

Cookware
Best times: April and May; October and November

"There are two big seasons for cookware and cookware promotions," says Hugh Rushing, executive vice president of the Cookware Manufacturers Association. "One is in the spring, in April and May, coinciding with the graduation and wedding season. The other is in October and November, with promotions in regard to the holidays."

Furniture
Best times: January and July

New furniture hits the showrooms after the holidays, in February, and again in August. Jackie Hirschhaut, the vice president of public relations and marketing for American Home Furnishing Alliance, says there are two times of the year for guaranteed low prices.
"After the holidays, in January, stores have clearance sales to make room for new inventory coming in February," she says. "And in July, the same thing happens with fall inventory. For instance, it may be the same wooden frame for sofas with different upholstery in new colors for fall."

Gas grills
Best time: winter

Ritchey says that, when it comes to gas barbeque grills, timing for the best deal is the same as shopping for air conditioners.
"Most people buy in May, June and July for backyard barbecues," Ritchey says. "But wait until winter comes to buy, when demand is low."

Jewelry
Best time: Avoid the holidays, Valentine's Day and Mother's Day

For jewelry, it's more a matter of when not to buy if you're focused on getting the best deal possible.
"You're going to pay closer to full price around the holidays because most jewelers generate one-third of their annual revenues and almost 100% of their annual profits in those two months," says Ken Gassman, the founder and president of the Jewelry Industry Research Institute. "You're going to get great value the other eight months of the year." In general, avoid the fourth quarter, that's when most of jeweler's yearly profits are made.

Linens and bedding
Best time: January

The white sale was a marketing strategy originally devised by John Wannamaker in 1878 and it was so successful that retailers still follow his lead today. "January is kind of an industry standard," says Deb Dyer, of upscale bedding cataloger Cuddletown. "That is the time of the year when you are going to see a lot of white sales by everyone -- retailers, cataloguers, everything. Linens do come out seasonally, so you'll see new colors in stores for spring and summer and then fall and winter."
Just as with clothing, bargains can be found on the previous season's styles.

Real estate
Best time: spring

Buying and selling season starts in March and goes through the summer. Spring invigorates the real estate market, meaning there are more homes to choose from. "In the spring market, homes look the best, grasses are green, flowers and trees are in bloom. There's a whole new energy out there after the beginning of the year," says Tom Stevens, president of the National Association of Realtors. Because spring is historically the time of the year when inventories are highest, competition is at its peak as well. Contrarian shoppers may find negotiating more to their liking in the fall and winter.

Recreational vehicles
Best time: fall and winter

The market for recreational vehicles works somewhat like that of autos.

"The model years change over like cars, so there is some special availability of the previous years product during the fall," says Phil Ingrassia, vice president of communications for the Recreational Vehicle Dealers of America. Throughout the winter there may be some show specials that dealers offer or other incentives to entice people to buy.

Toys
Best time: October and November

Retailers open up the toy chest in October and November to kick-start their moneymaking season, says Reyne Rice, a toy trend specialist of the Toy Industry Association. "This is the time of year for games and puzzles," she says. "Retailers will usually do a buy-one, get-one-free promotion."

If you're buying a gift for someone, the important thing to consider is whether it's appropriate for the recipient rather than its status as the hottest new item. "It's more important to buy something that they'll love," Rice says.

TVs and home theaters
Best time: winter holiday sales and January

For home theater items, in general, the holidays are a good time, says CNET's Morris. New TV models that were announced earlier in the year at the consumer-electronics show in January arrive in stores in August and September. They drop in price a few months after their debut as well as knocking down the price on the older models.

Vacuum cleaners
Best time: April and May

Most new vacuum models come out in June, Ritchey says. The prices on the older models start winding down as winter comes to an end, just in time for spring cleaning.

LinkedIn - Review

This what the website says you can do:

LinkedIn is a place to find and leverage professional opportunities, now and throughout your career. LinkedIn enables you to:

• Present yourself and your professional capabilities
• Find and reconnect with colleagues and classmates
• Leverage powerful tools to find and reach the people you need
• Build a powerful network of trusted professionals
• Discover professional relationships and opportunities
• Tap into inside connections and information
• Get the edge that gives you competitive advantage

There are already 9 million professionals in the LinkedIn Network and that number is growing fast. Whether you seek a job, a hire, a reference, a sales lead, an expert, or an inside connection at one of 50,000 companies, LinkedIn is an irreplaceable resource for building your professional relationships and achieving your goals.

This is what other people are saying:

A more common option for beginners is to search for current and former colleagues and contacts already linked up to LinkedIn. A handy feature lets you compare your Outlook address book against a list of current members, expediting the process of inviting people from the outside and building your business network from the ground up.

LinkedIn has a no-nonsense, all-business user interface. There are no forums, specific listings for job opportunities, or extra content here (as with Ryze and Tribe.net) beyond statistics about your network, including percentages of users who fall into categories (like job seekers and hiring managers) and distribution by industry and geography.

LinkedIn gives you excellent control of searches by name, title, geography, and industry type. You'll see only people in your network (those you're linked to by a chain of friends), however, so it's important that you cultivate connections. Once you locate a source, you can approach contacts about a job or other opportunity via a request page. In this beta version, users can have three outstanding requests at a time.

The governing principle is that persons of influence will be selective about passing along references, which are handed off to other contacts for approval. For three degrees of separation, you need two people to approve your request to approach a potential employer with a rèsumè, for example. When you sign in to your account, you're informed of outstanding reference requests, which you can accept or reject. Should a request be rejected, the person who asked for it is never informed who rejected it. This decreases the chances that inappropriate requests will be simply rubber-stamped.

While there are no profile photos for LinkedIn members, testimonials in the form of endorsements from other members can add weight to user profiles. According to LinkedIn, such endorsements significantly increase the odds of making successful contacts. Favorite contacts can be stored in an address book, though unlike the other services, LinkedIn doesn't have an extensive messaging system.

LinkedIn could change the way executive recruiting is conducted. As a general-purpose job site, it can undoubtedly work. And if you're fortunate enough to gain entrèe to its elite client list, it's a great resource for tapping venture capital, senior management, and technical expertise.

Remember the Greendays without Love!

به یاد روزهای سبز ولی بدون عشق

آن زمان که در سبز طبیعت
نگاه دوخته به آسمانت را
در دل پنهان کرده ای
شاید هرگز به معنای عشق نیندیشه ای
ورنه سبکبال برافراز ابرها پرمی گشودی
از دریای اشک مهر
تخته سنگی باقی است
که درونش قلبی است مملو از صبر و استقامت
کین زاده پرده نفاقی است
که بر شالوده عشق پهن کرده اند

frash!

Coupons for shopping Online..

Motley Fool has this article about being a smart online shopper. Here are few sites that might be of help to us.

CouponCactus.com, is a site that offers discounts at many online vendors. Just by going through the CouponCactus website, you can get 20% off your purchase at 1-800-Flowers.com, or $50 off certain purchases from iRobot (Nasdaq: IRBT). You can also accrue cash-back rewards on many purchases, such as 2% back on Overstock.com (Nasdaq: OSTK) purchases.

A similar outfit is FatWallet.com, featuring discounts such as an $18 cash-back reward from Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX), 9% back from various gardening suppliers, 3% back on purchases at eBay's (Nasdaq: EBAY) Half.com, and 6% back from Foot Locker purchases.

At FreeShipping.com, you pay for a membership and can get up to $500 of the shipping costs you pay online refunded each year. There are many merchants on the company's roster, such as Best Buy (NYSE: BBY), Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN), and Dell (Nasdaq: DELL).

Another option you have when shopping online is to do a little detective work of your own. If you're buying Attila the Hun collectibles at AttilaTheHun.net, try typing "AttilaTheHun.net" and "coupon" (or "code") into Google or some other search engine. You might end up with a code you can enter when checking out and paying -- one that will give you a discount, or perhaps free shipping.

India to outsource paperwork to American firm

LA Times is reporting ....

India to outsource paperwork to American firm
By David Colker, Times Staff Writer
11:47 AM PST, March 2, 2007

India has taken thousands of American jobs through outsourcing. Now it's giving a few back.

The Indian government plans to outsource processing of visas (visitor documents, not the credit cards) from its embassy in Washington to an American-based company.

A top embassy official wouldn't say whether the 40 staffers who do the jobs now would be laid off. Many of them are Indian nationals.

"We are not going to let too many go," said Gautam Bambawale, head of political affairs at the embassy.

UC Berkeley professor Harley Shaiken, who specializes in labor issues, said the move "is really a man bites dog kind of story. It's a small irony in an otherwise serious situation."

He said outsourcing of tech help lines, accounting work and even medical procedures played a significant role in the $11.7-billion U.S. trade deficit with India last year.

"It's nice to know that they retain us when it comes to processing visas," Shaiken said. "Of course it would be better if it was in automobiles or textiles."

The rush of businesspeople to India is one reason why the Indian government needed to overhaul its visa processing service. About 150,000 U.S. residents applied for visas to India last year, tripling the number in 2000.

The embassy began running a classified ad in the Wall Street Journal this week seeking U.S. companies "for outsourcing visa collection and delivery."

"The objective," Bambawale said, "is to make our whole operation more efficient, smoother and quicker."

AFL-CIO executive Bob Baugh said turnabout was fair play — sort of.

"I'm all in favor of something that employs American workers," he said wryly. "It kind of makes up for all those call centers."

The Secret...

Being an avid watcher of the The Oprah Winfrey Show, my wife often tells me stories of what she saw on the show. Usually I don't really pay attention to them, but this one made me think a little...The Secret.

From what I got from it, if you think positive, positive things will happen to you, same goes for negative stuff. Being a highly optimistic person, I already knew this. But maybe this might help other people. So here are a few excerpts from the show, that I think make some sense.

The Secret is defined as the law of attraction, which states that like attracts like. The concept says that the energy you put into the world—both good and bad—is exactly what comes back to you. This means you create the circumstances of your life with the choices you make every day.

There is scientific evidence to back up the spiritual practices and laws defined in The Secret. "Science tells us that everything is energy, and so your thoughts are energy. Your body, your cash, your car—everything you think is solid, if you put it under a high-powered microscope, it's just a field of energy and a rate of vibration, and so are we. So if you think you're this meat suit running around, you have to think again."

The Secret isn't about contradicting religion—it supports it.

Instead of living a life preparing for some ultimate reward, you should live in the now. "When you're anticipating some future good, you're preventing that good that is all around you from expressing through you, [Don't] put life on the layaway plan and try to anticipate that it's going to get good in the future."

You can read the whole show with a few live examples here

گلی نامه

چشم بگشا تا زقامت بیفکنی برم ظل را
لب بگشا تا کز سینه به در کنی دل را

سخن ز بهر این گویم که شاید
فردا یی نباشد از بر زیستن

ارچه صبر کردم بسی پشت درب انتظار
نشنیدم ندایی که نوازش بدهد گوش

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frash

Keeping Cash Under My Mattress..makes sense !

If growing up in India taught me anything, its that CASH IS KING !
We always saved up the cash first and then bought stuff, no credit cards. Well thats not true anymore, not even in India ! When my wife and I moved to the Unites States and started living in Ohio, we became so used to debit and credit cards, that we never carried cash...we didnt have to! Then we had this ice storm, and the power got knocked out. So no heat, no internet, no phone in my case because I had a VOIP phone..just a cell phone. Well, you can always drive to the nearest ATM and get cash, but the ATM need power too! So when I read this article on the Simple Dollar blog, it made a lot of sense to keep some cash in the home, in the event of ...the unexpected !

Trent@Simple Dollar blog wrote:

It’s true. After all the financial advice I give out on this site, I keep a decent amount of cash “under my mattress” (actually, it’s in another secure place in my home, but it’s effectively the same thing). At first, this seems to fly right in the face of everything I preach on this site. Why isn’t this money at least earning 4.5% in an ING Direct savings account, if not earning a lot more in a mutual fund or something else? No, because this is a different kind of investment.

I keep a small pile of twenties in my home as my ultimate emergency fund. I keep this money on hand for the sole purpose of being available if I have no access to funds in any other way - in the event of an absence of electricity or some other essentials, a cash economy will dominate and I do not wish to risk being in that situation with no leverage to make sure my family has food, water, and protection.

Even though it’s not earning anything, I view this money as an investment. It’s an investment against the unexpected - situations where everything else has failed and I have no other options to turn to. Knowing that it is there provides a certain level of security that money sitting in a bank account somewhere can’t quite provide.

Is this necessary? Let’s step back to Labor Day 2005, when Hurricane Katrina basically wiped a major city off of the map in the United States. Let’s step back to the summer of 2003, when much of the northeastern United States blacked out, many areas for weeks. What about the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 - I do live near the New Madrid fault line, after all. I’m only mentioning domestic disasters so far - what about the tsunami of 2004? The dozens of devastating earthquakes in recent years?

The fact is that such disasters happen, and quite often you have no way of knowing these things are coming. To not be prepared for them on some level is a poor choice, the type of choice that leaves people in situations of desperation, like those poor souls who inhabited the Superdome after Katrina.

I view the pile of bills under my mattress as an insurance policy against such a disaster, so that I can get my family the things that they need or at least get us to a place where we can get the things we need. Is this the right thing for you? That’s a question you’ll have to ask yourself - it comes down to whether or not you feel that such preparation for a relatively slim possibility is worthwhile. Is it? Give it some thought today as you go through your activities - and put a few twenties under the mattress tonight if if feels right to you.